November 11th, 2013

REPAL’s inaugural Conference on New Knowledge Frontiers in the Political Economy of Latin America will be held June 9 and 10, 2014 in Santiago, Chile. The program committee welcomes proposals that tackle important puzzles and problems, both theoretical and practical, in the political economy of Latin America. Paper proposals (no more than 500 words) should be grounded in solid empirical field research employing whatever methods are appropriate to the research questions. Proposals, papers, and presentations can be in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.

Repal is a new network of researchers (institutionally affiliated with universities in Latin America, North America, and Europe) interested in promoting and giving greater visibility to new studies in the political economy of Latin America. In thematic terms, we are interested in analyzing the interaction among economic, political, and social processes. We are particularly concerned with how the findings of such analyses further our understanding of development models, the socio-political institutions that sustain them, and the practical problems they face. In methodological terms, we seek to promote research that is empirically grounded and sensitive to context and that leads to new forms of description, concept formation, causal inference, and theoretical innovations that challenge the conventional wisdom on socially relevant phenomenon in the region. With respect to methods of research and analysis, our approach is open and eclectic, based on a simple premise that the methods should be selected as a function of the problem to be studied rather than the reverse. Institutionally, Repal is a network open to the research community and structured around the promotion of diverse, plural debate on the political economy of Latin America.

Call for papers. "Conference on New Knowledge Frontiers in the Political Economy of Latin America"